Special Service and Features
CAG Report on PSUs for 2019 tabled in Assembly
The Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India on Public Sector Undertakings for the year ended March 2019, Government of Kerala has been laid on the table of the Fifteenth Kerala Legislative Assembly on 10 June 2021.
The summary of important points highlighted in the Report is given below:
The Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India on Revenue Sector contains overview and five chapters. The first chapter contains general observations regarding the revenue sector and other general details. The other chapters in the report includes significant observations noted during the Compliance Audits in the departments of State Goods and Services Tax, Transport, Revenue & Disaster Management, Forest, Excise etc.
General observations
- Total revenue receipts of the State Government for the year 2018-19 amounted to Rs. 92,854.48 crore against Rs. 83,020.14 crore for the previous year. 67 per cent of this was raised by the State through tax revenue  and non-tax revenue . The balance 33 per cent was receipt from the Government of India as State's share of divisible Union taxes  and Grants-in-aid .

- Arrears of revenue as on 31 March 2019 on some principal heads of revenue amounted to Rs. 20,146.39 crore, of which, Rs. 5,765.84 crore was outstanding for more than five years.

- At the end of June 2019, 3,560 Inspection Reports  issued up to December 2018 in respect of various Departments containing 22,437 observations involving money value of Rs. 8,213.60 crore was outstanding.

Compliance Audit on Arrears of Revenue
- Database of arrears of revenue was incomplete and/or not properly maintained in any of the six selected departments.

- The arrear of Rs. 4,933.72 crore in the beginning of 2014-15 increased to Rs. 11,366.35 crore  at the end of 2018-19. The rate of growth of arrear amount was fluctuating between 13.50 per cent and 22.12 per cent whereas the recovery of arrear amount remained sluggish with rate of recovery fluctuating between 4.58 per cent and 9.16 per cent during this period.

- Even though 5,06,801 cases  involving Rs. 3,484.97 crore  were available for revenue recovery, no RR action was requisitioned by the respective departments in these cases to realise the arrears.

- 11,850 cases involving Rs. 344.66 crore in SGST department and 55,676cases involving Rs. 1,382.09 crore in R&DM department in the selected districts were pending due to delay in finalisation of cases where Revenue Recovery action has been initiated.

- Delay in modification of disposed appeal cases resulted in blockage of Rs. 103.39 crore in 157 cases of SGST Department and Rs. 1.13 crore in 118 cases of R&DM Department in the selected districts.

Compliance Audit on Transition from Kerala Value Added Tax to Goods and Services Tax
- Irregular option of composition scheme by 39 registered persons was noticed in GSTN

- In the eight selected tax districts, 61 registered persons availed excess transitional credit amounting to Rs. 46.41 crore over and above the Input Tax Credit as disclosed through FORM GST TRAN-1.

- In the six selected tax districts, 46 persons not having any supporting invoices on goods held in stock on the appointed day but registered under the existing law as manufacturer/service provider claimed transitional credit in respect of stock held on the appointed day resulting in irregular claim of CGST credit amounting to Rs. 13.08 crore.
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- In the seven selected tax districts, 77 persons claimed transitional credit even though these taxpayers do not fulfil any of the criteria asspecified in the Act/Rule which resulted in irregular carry forward oftransitional credit amounting to Rs. 3.99 crore.

- Twenty registered persons carried forward higher transitional credit, amounting to Rs. 2.33 crore, in the ECL than the amount declared in their last return under KVAT.

- In the five selected tax districts, 41 persons who had not paid IGST and availed drawback of central taxes were sanctioned refund amount of Rs. 0.76 crore.

- Excess refund of Rs. 0.57 crore was noticed in respect of 22 persons in six selected tax districts due to erroneous application of formula.
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Other Compliance Audit Paragraphs
- 2,453 buildings in 28 Taluk Offices were not assessed to building tax by the Tahsildars concerned, even though the Village Officers had reported these cases in 2016-17 and 2017-18 which resulted in a short levy of Rs. 13 crore.

- 898 buildings in 20 Taluk Offices assessed under property tax by local bodies were not identified by the Village Officers and reported to the Tahsildars concerned for assessment under Building Tax Act/Rules which resulted in non levy of building tax amounting to Rs. 6.72 crore.

- Irregular assessments by the assessing authorities due to turnover escaping assessment, application of incorrect rate of tax, irregular exemption, irregular allowance of IPT credit and irregular assessment of CST resulted in short levy of tax and interest amounting to Rs. 6.33 crore.

- In 7,671 cases one per cent tax collected at source had not been considered while computing the purchase value of the vehicles. This resulted in short collection of one-time tax levied on non-transport vehicles, amounting to Rs.3.56 crore.

- Short/Non levy of Basic/Land Tax amounting to Rs. 2.37 crore noticed in 1,162 cases in 28 Taluk Offices.

- Short levy of tax and interest due to excess availing of input tax credit in respect of two assesses worked out to Rs. 1.43 crore.

- In respect of vehicles reclassified as non-transport, non-levy of tax was noticed in 434 cases with a money value of Rs. 0.60 crore and short-levy of tax was noticed in 1,023 cases with a money value of Rs.1.22 crore.

- Irregular adjustment made by the Department in respect of excess leave salary and pension contribution paid by a licensee resulted in the short recovery of cost of establishment amounting to Rs. 22.74 lakh.

The entire report is available for download at https://cag.gov.in/en/audit-report/details/113924